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Roughing It Up

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Description:

The Cultural Series is a collection of familiar scenes from the everyday life of Jerome Tiger's Indian people; their customs and habits, their celebrations, their sports and entertainment. The fourth release in the Cultural Series, entitled "Roughing It Up", depicts two players involved in the strenuous Indian game of Stickball. This age-old sport is traditionally a fast-moving, violent game which often accelerates into bloody combat between the teams. The players catch a ball in scoops attached to the end of wooden sticks which are about three feet long, and hurl it at a goal, usually a carved animal head sitting atop a tall pole. In the heat of the game the players angrily swing and thrash their sticks like clubs to fend off their opponents. Instinctively, Tiger added to "Roughing It Up" the touches of realism necessary to capture the action and ferocity of the Stickball game. The aggressor's sticks are clenched in a vise-like grip; his opponent's sticks are free in the air, his fingers open. The viewer is literally made to feel the rush of breathe from the player's lungs as he is brought down. The impact of the collision in so artfully accomplished that even the most casual observer is effected. Because of its dynamic realism, its force and action, Roughing It Up" must rank as one of Tiger's truly powerful works.